Britain's first black voter cast ballot in 1749 election

It is a discovery that changes our understanding of British history – and it arises from just one word.

- Chris Osuh

Until now, the first black voter in Britain was thought to have been the composer Charles Ignatius Sancho, the abolitionist who, as the owner of property in Mayfair, voted in the 1774 Westminster election.

But a chance discovery at the British Library by Dr Gillian Williamson, a historian researching lodgers in Georgian London, reveals a black man had voted in an election 25 years earlier.

The revelation that John London, the landlord of a pub in the capital, cast a vote in 1749 sheds new light on an era when the black population of London is believed to have been about 10,000 and the democratic process was limited but lively.